Rose Louise Hovick (1911 - 1970) - Genealogy Rose Louise Hovick in Los Angeles, California, United States Place of Burial: Added 2016-07-24 05:26:56 -0700 by Private User Collection: Feb 9 1911 - Seattle, Washington, USA Death: Apr 26 1970 - Los Angeles, California, USA Parents: John Olaf Hovick, Rose Elizabeth Hovick (born Thompson) Sister: Ellen June (June Havoc Evangeline Hovick) Hovick Husband: Father Of Erik Lee (Otto Preminger) Son: Added 2016-07-24 05:26:48 -0700 by Private User Collection: Jan 9 1911 - Seattle, Washington Death: John Olaf (Jack) Høvik (Howick), Rose Elizabeth Hovick (født Thomson (Lee)) Siblings: Ellen June Spier (født Howick), Betty Howick (født Shepperd), Jack Høvik (Howick), Sus

ie Galloway (født Høvik) Partner: Gypsy Rose Lee (January 9, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act.

She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy. Early life Gypsy Rose Lee was born Ellen June Hovick (her name was changed to Rose Louise when her sister was born and given her name, Ellen) in Seattle, Washington, in 1911, although her mother later shaved three years off both of her daughters' ages. She was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Hovick (née Rose Evangeline Thompson), was a teenage bride fresh from a convent school when she married Norwegian-American John Olaf Hovick, who was a newspaper advertising salesman and a reporter at The Seattle Times. Louise's sister, Ellen Evangeline (better known as actress June Havoc), was born in 1913. After their parents divorced, the girls supported the family by appearing in Vaudeville[when?], where June's talent shone while Louise remained in the background.

At the age of 15 in December 1928, June eloped with Bobby Reed, a dancer in the act, much to her mother's displeasure, going on to a brief career in marathon dancing, which was more profitable than tap dancing at the time. Career Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could make money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status as a classy and witty striptease artist. Initially, her act was propelled forward when a shoulder strap on one of her gowns gave way, causing her dress to fall to her feet despite her efforts to cover herself; encouraged by the audience response, she went on to make the trick the focus of her performance. Her innovations were an almost casual strip style compared to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease"), and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well.

She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her strip style, and – changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee – she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids on the Minsky brothers' shows. In 1937 and 1938, billed as Louise Hovick, she made 5 films in Hollywood. But her acting was generally panned, so she returned to New York City where she had an affair with film producer Michael Todd and co-produced and appeared in his 1942 musical revue "Star and Garter". Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen.

In 1941, Gypsy Rose Lee authored a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders, which was made into the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by Craig Rice, there are also those who suggest that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee's own correspondence to prove she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her friend and mentor the editor George Davis.[7][8] Lee's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. Relationships While she worked at Minsky's, Gypsy Rose Lee had relationships with an assortment of characters, from comedian Rags Ragland to Eddy Bruns. In Hollywood, she married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937, at the insistence of the film studio. Gypsy was at one time in love with Michael Todd and in 1942, in an attempt to make him jealous, she married William Alexander Kirkland; they divorced in 1944.

While married to Kirkland, she gave birth on December 11, 1944, to a son fathered by Otto Preminger; he was named Erik Lee and has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Preminger. Gypsy Lee was married for a third time in 1948, to Julio de Diego, but they also eventually divorced. Gypsy Rose Lee and her sister June Havoc continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a boarding house for women in a 10-room apartment on West End Avenue in Manhattan (the property rented for her by Gypsy) as well as a farm in Highland Mills, New York. Rose shot and killed one of her guests (Rose's female lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy according to an account provided by Gypsy's son, Erik Lee Preminger). The incident was explained away as a suicide and Rose was not prosecuted. Mother Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer. Later years After the death of their mother, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit.

Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957 and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. June Havoc did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was eventually persuaded (and paid) not to oppose it for her sister's sake. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged. June, in turn, wrote Early Havoc and More Havoc, relating her version of the story. Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host a morning San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. She was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer, which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. "This is my present, you know," she reportedly told June, "my present from Mother." The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves.

Like Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular Front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of Spanish children during the conflict. “She became politically active, and supported Spanish Loyalists during Spain's Civil War. She also became a fixture at Communist United Front meetings, and was investigated by the House Committee on un-American activities.” She also founded one of the first kennels dedicated to breeding Chinese Crested dogs in the U.S., "Lee", which was sold after her death to Mrs. Ida Garrett and Debora Wood. Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1970. She is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Filmography Gypsy Rose Lee G Gypsy Rose Lee Gypsy Rose Lee (born January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer, famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress and writer, whose 1957 memoir, written as a monument to her mother, was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.

Early life Gypsy was born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington in 1911, although her mother later shaved three years off both of her daughters' ages. She was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, married John Olaf Hovick, who was a newspaper advertising salesman. Her sister, Ellen June Hovick (better known as actress June Havoc), was born in 1913. After their parents divorced, the girls earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville where June's talent shone, while Louise remained in the background. At the age of 13, June married a boy in the act named Bobby Reed. June left the act and went on to a brief career in marathon dancing before giving birth to April Reed around 1930. Career Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could make money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status.

Her innovations were an almost casual strip style, compared to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease") and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her strip style, and—changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee—she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids on the Minsky brothers' shows. She eventually traveled to Hollywood, where she was billed as Louise Hovick. Her acting was generally panned, so she returned to New York City and invested in film producer Michael Todd. She eventually appeared as an actress in many of his films. Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast . Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart 's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared.

Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen. In 1941, Gypsy Rose Lee authored a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders which was made into the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by Craig Rice, there are also those who suggest that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee's own correspondence to prove she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her friend and mentor, the editor George Davis. Lee's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. Relationships While she worked at Minsky's, Gypsy Rose Lee had relationships with an assortment of characters from comedian Rags Ragland to Eddy Bruns. In Hollywood, she married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937, at the insistence of the film studio.

Gypsy was at one time in love with Michael Todd, and in 1942, in an attempt to make him jealous, she married William Alexander Kirkland. They divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she gave birth to a son fathered by Otto Preminger; he was named Erik Lee and has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego and Erik Preminger. Gypsy Lee was married for a third time in 1948 to Julio de Diego, but they also eventually divorced. Gypsy and June, who also became successful in performance, continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a lesbian boarding house in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City. This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for Mother Rose by Gypsy Lee. Mother Rose shot and killed one of her guests (according to Erik Preminger, she killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy) at the boardinghouse. This incident was explained as a suicide . Mother Rose died in 1954 of colon cancer .

Later years With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957 and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim , and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. June Havoc didn't like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was eventually persuaded (and paid) not to oppose it for her sister's sake. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged. June, in turn, wrote Early Havoc and More Havoc, relating her version of the story. Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host a morning San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. She was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer , which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. "This is my present, you know," she reportedly told June, "my present from Mother".

The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso , Marc Chagall , Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves. Like Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of Spanish children during the conflict. She also founded one of the first kennels dedicated to breeding Chinese Crested dogs in the U.S, 'Lee', which was sold after her death to Mrs. Ida Garrett and Deborah Woods. Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1970. She is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Filmography You Can't Have Everything (1937) Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) Sally, Irene and Mary (1938) Battle of Broadway (1938) Lee, Gypsy Rose (Rose Louise Hovick) (1911-1970) - HistoryLink.org Lee, Gypsy Rose (Rose Louise Hovick) (1911-1970) By Kathrine K.

Beck Tweet Seattle-born Rose Louise Hovick had her first brush with fame at age one, winning a healthy baby contest. As Gypsy Rose Lee, she became famous in burlesque as a classy and witty strip tease artist. She, her little sister June (later known as June Havoc, 1912?-2010), and her monstrous stage mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, passed into show biz legend when her bestselling 1957 memoir, Gypsy, became a Broadway smash. Stars in Her Mother's Eyes The mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, was a teenaged bride fresh from a convent school when she married Jack Olaf Hovick. At 19, she gave birth to the 12-pound Rose Louise on January 8, 1911, at 4314 Frontenac Street in West Seattle. Rose reported that the birth was horrific and the baby was washed outside in the snow. A second child was born in Vancouver B.C. two years later, and named June. By this time the Hovick marriage was in trouble, but it limped along a little longer.

Rose’s father had not allowed Rose to go on the stage, and now, she wanted a career for her children. Jack Hovick explained that they couldn’t afford expensive dancing lessons for the girls. Later, Rose told her daughters that her own mother had warned her against marrying a Norwegian, as his wife would always come second to the animals in the barn. When Rose accused him of being a tight-fisted Norwegian farmer, Hovick reminded her he was actually a newspaperman. Louise's memoir states that her father was a reporter for The Seattle Times. He is recorded on her 1911 birth certificate, however, as an ad salesman. A Legacy of Lingerie After the breakup, Rose and the girls moved back in with her parents in West Seattle. Charlie Thompson was a Great Northern Railway employee who worked in the baggage room at King Street station. His wife Anna was an excellent seamstress and milliner who created extravagant hats and exotic lingerie. She spent months on the road visiting mining towns and lumber camps from Nevada to the Yukon, selling the flashy apparel to prostitutes. Rose set to work to make a performer out of Louise, but Louise had no talent at all. She couldn’t sing or dance.

Her little sister June, however, could dance on point at aged two. Rose’s father arranged for a debut concert at his lodge hall, and soon Baby June was appearing regularly around Seattle, once as part of the bill on Anna Pavolva’s farewell tour, inspiring Rose to change her billing to “Baby June, the Pocket-sized Pavlova.” Baby June and Plug Eventually, Baby June got an audition with Alexander Pantages (1876-1936) who had come to Seattle in 1902 and built theaters up and down the west coast. Soon she was launched in vaudeville and also appeared in Hollywood movies. She couldn’t speak until three, but the films were silent and she could cry for the cameras when her mother told her dog had died. Meanwhile, Rose Louise, nicknamed Plug, a chubby, ungainly child with dark hair in a shiny Dutch bob, stayed back in Seattle with her father or grandparents and went to kindergarten, sometimes visiting her mother and her sister in Hollywood. When Louise was seven, she joined them permanently. Neither girl got any further schooling.

Dainty June and the Newsboy Songsters June was now the star of the vaudeville act, “Madam Rose presents Dainty June and her Newsboy Songsters.” The newsboy songsters consisted of a revolving cast of male street urchins whose parents were glad to turn them over to someone who would feed them. They received pocket money and the promise of theatrical training. Louise was one of the newsboy songsters, and even off stage was sometimes dressed as a boy in a knickerbocker suit, cloth cap, and belted leather coat so as not to eclipse June, who sported tiny fur coats, hats and muffs, garish makeup and peroxided ringlets. “People stared at us when we walked down the street,” wrote Louise later. At its height, the act was pulling in $1,500 a week on the Orpheum circuit, and Dainty June was a powerhouse with top billing who often stopped the show. Madam Rose taught the girls to lie about their ages to truant officers and railway train conductors, steal blankets and sheets from hotels, and sneak out without paying. The girls were practiced shoplifters.

Madam Rose wasn’t above sabotaging rival acts and was masterful at conning well wishers out of money with her genteel, brave-but-helpless single mother act. June later said that after the age of five, she never believed anything her mother said. A tiny, delicate looking woman, Rose nevertheless once managed to push a hotel manager out of the window. From Plug to Hard Boiled Rose Despite Rose’s hectoring, Louise continued to display no interest in show business. For years she had one song in the act, a "tough" novelty number called "Hard Boiled Rose" and also appeared as a pretty, but static doll, billed as "The Doll Girl." Louise later said that Rose threatened that if she didn’t work harder, she would be given away and legally adopted by her aunt, Jack Hovick’s sister Helma and her husband Fred, managing editor of The Seattle Times, who lived in a big white house on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. By the late 1920s, vaudeville was dying and Dainty June was getting too big for a kid act. The girls never knew their real ages until they were grown.

June thought she was 13 when she eloped with Bobby Reed, one of the newsboy songsters, but she was probably three years older. A furious Rose jammed a gun into Bobby’s chest and pulled the trigger but the safety catch was on. (She later pulled a gun on Louise’s first husband, but it wasn’t loaded.) Getting Their Act Together With Dainty June’s departure, the act was over. Rose and Louise went back to Seattle to regroup. There, with backing from Rose’s father, they recruited a half dozen unprepossessing adolescent girls who wanted a career in show business. Louise made babyish costumes for them, and they hit the road as Madam Rose’s Dancing Daughters with a pig named Porky and an act in which they held dolls. The act wasn’t a success. Louise says it was her idea to bleach all their hair platinum blonde, and get them out of the pinafores and ankle socks and into high heels. The act was renamed “Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes,” with Louise standing out as the only brunette. Vaudeville was dying.

(Elsewhere, June and Bobby Reed had tried to get an act going, but eventually had to settle for the grueling marathon dance circuit.) Rose Louise and her Hollywood Blondes, now living in a tent to save money on hotels, worked their first burlesque house, The Missouri Theatre in Kansas City. “I could be a star without any talent at all,” Louise wrote in her memoir. She was a tall, long-legged brunette. At first, she was just another stripper in bump-and-grind venues where the customers masturbated beneath newspapers in their laps. Gypsy Rose Lee But she soon managed to pull away from the pack with humor. By 1931, she was in New York, and playing Minsky’s. Gangster Waxey Howard paid to have her crooked teeth fixed. She soon moved up into higher social circles and became the toast of cafe society. Rose Louise Hovick was now Gypsy Rose Lee. Her act was a send-up of a strip act.

She recited a witty monologue in a low sing-song voice and a cultivated accent as she stripped, and got big laughs as she dropped the pins that held her costumes together into the tuba with plinking sounds and fussily straightened the crooked black bow on her nipple with an “Oh dear!” She revealed little actual flesh, ending the act draped coyly by the curtain. The act was really more about comedy than sex, and men and their wives were now in the audience. A run at Hollywood failed, as did a play she wrote, but Lee made money producing and appearing in “Star and Garter,” a 1942 musical revue with her lover Mike Todd. Lee’s friends now included literary lights such as Carson McCullers, Janet Flanner, Carl Van Doren, and W. H. Auden. Her mystery novel The G-String Murders (later filmed as Lady of Burlesque with Barbara Stanwyck) was a critical and commercial success. A follow up mystery novel, Mother Finds A Body, with a grotesque character not unlike Madam Rose, was not.

Love and Family Fame In 1944 she gave birth to her only child, Erik, the product of a short affair with the director Otto Preminger. Officially, the boy’s father was her second husband. Erik learned of his true parentage in his late teens. Meanwhile, Dainty June, now billed as June Havoc, had worked her way back from obscurity. After her smash performance in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey in 1940, she went on to a long and distinguished career in movies and on Broadway where she played in Shakespeare and Sheridan, and musicals such as Sweeney Todd and Annie. She now lives on a farm in Connecticut. Madam Rose's Last Act Madam Rose died in 1954. Her last words threatened her daughter Louise, promising to drag her daughter into death with her. In later years, Rose had run a lesbian boarding house and farm. One of her guests was shot at a party, and the verdict was suicide, but Lee’s son, Erik Preminger, is quoted in a Vanity Fair article saying that the victim was Rose’s lover, and that Rose killed her in front of many witnesses after she made a pass at Gypsy.

According to Rose’s sister Belle, a Seattle doctor who saw Rose on a visit home said she was “crazy” and “dangerously so.” She harassed and blackmailed both her daughters, demanding money and gifts, although she was well provided for, and turned up at their performances dressed shabbily and claiming to be ill and poor. They both communicated with her through lawyers. Writing and Stripping After Rose’s death, Lee was free to exploit the sensational story of her childhood without fear of a libel suit from her mother. Her 1957 memoir, Gypsy, was an instant best seller. Lee was not, however, a reliable narrator. She changed some unpleasant facts, dramatized, and put an amusing spin on the horrors of life on the road with Madam Rose. She once told her sister, “Without my wit, Mother is just one more corny song with a boring lyric.” Havoc’s tough 1959 memoir, Early Havoc paints a much darker picture. Lee turned down a $200,000 movie rights deal for her memoir, instead selling the theatrical rights to her book for $4,000 against a percentage of the gross.

She told her son Erik, “It’s a risk, but if the show is successful I’ll get royalties for it for the rest of my life as well as at least that much when it’s sold as a film.” Although she was always a good businesswoman, she had never learned any math and was confused by fractions and percentages. During negotiations she was known to rely on pie charts rather than figures. The production was jeopardized by objections from June, who at one point hired a lawyer. She felt the story was full of lies and falsely depicted her as a no-talent kid and the heavy who runs off with Louise’s boyfriend. Eventually, she relented after some small changes were made. The full title -- Gypsy: A Musical Fable -- was a concession to June. Lee continued her strip act until the 1950s, with her 12-year-old son Erik as her assistant on the road.

After the success of her book and the musical, and with three failed marriages behind her, she moved from New York to a house in Beverly Hills, made appearances on television talk shows and Hollywood Squares, presided over her own successful talk show for housewives, and indulged in her hobbies of gardening, knitting, antique collecting, dog breeding, and quilting. Gypsy Rose Lee died in 1970, with the musical bearing her name guaranteeing her lasting show business fame. This essay made possible by: Humanities Washington Gipsy Rose Lee Hovick |Burlesque|Stripper|Author|Actress Rose Louise Hovick "The most publicized women in the world", 'Gipsy Rose Lee' Gypsy Rose Lee, the legendary woman who told the police during a raid at the famous Minsky's burlesque house, "I wasn't naked. I was completely covered by a blue spotlight." was known as "The most publicized women in the world." Gypsy Rose Lee was one of the most famous strippers of all time. She received more free press than anyone in the business. Was also a movie actress and Author.

She first came on the scene as a child after her mother and father (John Olaf Hovick) divorced. Soon after her mother went on the road to Vaudeville with kids in tow. Her mother Rose Hovick (née Rose Evangeline Thompson, died 1954), she and her sister Ellen June Hovick started on the Vaudeville stage in a small time act called "Dainty June and her newsboy songsters." and later "Madame Rose and her dancing daughters," and then later Gypsy would have her own dancing act called "Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes." | More Photos | When Vaudeville died, they moved over to the Burlesque Stage and when a stripper didn't show up, Gypsy took the part and the rest becomes history. Gypsy learned her craft from Burlesque dancer "Tessie the Tassel Twirler" and made her debut on October 6th in Kansas City, MO. It is said that Gypsy never fully stripped , but rather refined the art of the 'Tease' like no one else could. H.K. Minsky would spot her and make her a featured performer at his famous New York club.

While in New York she became the toast of the town while working at the Irving Place Theater, eventually working her way uptown to become a Ziegfeld girl in "Hot Cha." The last Ziegfeld Follies had her as a featured performer. Her first legitimate role was in "I Must Love Someone" and a summer theater tour of the play "Burlesque." She was the star of ( And also dated) Michael Todd's "Streets of Paris," along with "Theater Cafe, Gay New Orleans and Todd's Star and Garter." Gypsy's mother (Rose Hovick) was also a Burlesque dancer as well, and her little sister June Hovac (stage Spelling) was part of the prior Vaudeville act but at the age of 15 in December of 1928 June would elope with Bobby Reed, a dancer in the act, much to her mother's displeasure. June went on to became a succesful Movie Actress. Gypsy had a son by the name of Erik Lee Kirkland who later Preminger adopted and is believed to be his natural father.

In 1945 Erik was twelve years of age when she retired as a stripper at the young age of 42. However she still wrote and appeared in Plays and Films under the name of Rose Louise Hovick. Gypsy passed away in Los Angeles, Ca. in 1970 due to Lung Cancer. She is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery In Inglewood, California. Birth Place Gypsy Rose Lee | Short Biography Gypsy Rose Lee on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... Gypsy Rose She was born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington Gypsy was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Thompson, was fifteen when she married John Hovick ... Lee Real name Rose Louise Hovick, she was to earn her fame as the world’s most famous stripper.

Gypsy Rose Lee - Biography Cyberpedia Library < Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay > Lee, Gypsy Rose (Rose Louise Hovick) (1911-1970) HistoryLink.org Essay 5686 : Printer-Friendly Format Gypsy Rose Lee - Everything on Gypsy Rose… Gypsy Rose Lee Biography: It's probable that no one had ever heard the word "ecdysiast" until Gypsy Rose Lee looked it up. To the world at large, self-proclaimed ecdysiast Lee ... Gypsy Rose Lee - Biography on Bio. Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Louise Hovick) was born on Thursday, February 09, 1911 in Seattle and she was a famous dancer from United States HistoryLink.org- the Free Online… 29/12/2010 · Perhaps if Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne hadn't created one of the best American musicals of all time in 1959, the real Gypsy Rose Lee would be as ...

Gypsy Rose Lee Biography - Rotten Tomatoes Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of America’s coming of age—told through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. Gypsy Rose Lee Biography, Pictures, Images,… If you’re a fan of Gypsy¸ you’re already aware of the complicated relationship between the striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee and her steamroller of a stage mother. 'American Rose' review: Gypsy Rose Lee… 02/02/2011 · Karen Abbott blames her grandmother for "all the bawdy stories," including the one that led her to Gypsy Rose Lee. Abbott's grandmother, 92 and going strong, had a ... 1000+ images about Gypsy Rose Lee on Pinterest | Studios, Playwright and Actresses Forward Gypsy Rose Lee (January1911 - April 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer legendary for her classy, witty striptease act.

Her casual strip style as opposed to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers emphasized the "tease" in "striptease" and she brought a sharp sense of humor to her act as well. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film "Gypsy". "God is love, but get it in writing.". Gypsy Rose Lee See More Gypsy Rose Lee - Biography - IMDb Gypsy Rose Lee Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trivia (18) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (4) 5' 8" (1.73 m) Mini Bio (1) Born Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington, in 1911, but called Louise from early childhood, Gypsy Rose Lee was the daughter of a mild-mannered businessman and a restless, fiery young woman named Rose, who was determined to get out of Seattle and make a life for herself and her daughter in show business. In 1912, Rose had another child, June.

Rose thought June was much more beautiful, photogenic and talented than Louise apparently could ever hope to be, which soon caused her to pack up her two children and search for a career in vaudeville (she divorced her husband when he objected to a career in show business). By the time Louise was seven and June five, they had put together a very successful act, Baby June and Her Farmboys. June was, of course, the star, and Louise was put in the chorus, though she did get an occasional moment in the spotlight. The act was making $1500 a week, but the family was not exactly living in high style, having to scrimp and save much of the time in order to buy food, and often in debt. There are many who believe that Rose was squandering the money. There were also rumors about Rose during this time, about how she had to dodge the police, who enforced strict child labor laws, and even about how she may have murdered a man she thought was pestering her children. Despite these rumors, June and Louise's act continued to be successful throughout the 1920s. At the end of the decade June was 13 and had been re-christened Dainty June.

By this time it was clear that vaudeville was a dying art form. Rose, however, still chased after her dream, and still made June up to be a cute baby. June resented it, and finally she married one of the chorus boys in the act (she was still only 13) and ran away with him. Not even this could stop Rose, however. This time she formed a new act, centering it around Louise. Called Rose Louise and Her Hollywood Blondes, she and her chorus girls performed slightly risqué musical numbers, and were moderately successful. Still, vaudeville continued to die out, which hurt the act. However, there was one form of vaudeville that still drew crowds: burlesque. Eventually, Rose, Louise and company had to take a job in a burlesque house. Sometime during their stay there the star stripper was not able to go on for a performance. Rose, never one to pass up an opportunity, volunteered Louise for the job. So Louise, just 15 at the time, stepped on stage, wearing not much more than a grass skirt, and slowly and teasingly . . . didn't take much off.

Audiences responded favorably to this new kind of striptease act, which was more "tease" than "strip," more tantalizing than tawdry. Louise had finally found her calling. For her stage name she took Gypsy, a nickname she derived from her hobby of reading tea leaves, and combined it with her real first name, Rose, and Lee, which she added on a whim. As Gypsy Rose Lee she launched a hugely successful career in burlesque, incorporating humor and intelligence, as well as the requisite removal of various articles of clothing, into her act. She became extremely popular, even appearing at the last place anyone would expect, high society balls. Once she had conquered the stages of burlesque, she decided to try her hand at movies. Billed under her real name, Louise Hovick--because the studio heads were afraid her stage name would scare people away--she made her film debut in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937). It was a forgettable film, and her performance wasn't much more memorable. She appeared in three more films in the 1930s, and two more in the 1940s, but her film career was pretty much a bust.

She tried her hand at writing with the "burlesque mystery" novel "The G-String Murders" (1941), which was made into the film Lady of Burlesque (1943), starring Barbara Stanwyck . By the 1950s, however, she was comfortable just being a sort of queen mother of burlesque. She had gone through three unhappy marriages, as well as affairs with showman Michael Todd and director Otto Preminger ; the latter was the father of her only child, Erik Lee Preminger . She was not close to her sister June, who by this time had changed her name and was known as actress/dancer June Havoc . She also still had to contend with Mama Rose, who constantly tried to extort money from her with vicious threats. It wasn't until Rose died from terminal cancer in 1954 that Gypsy truly felt safe to write her memoirs, without having to worry anymore about her mother's repercussions. Her autobiography, "Gypsy", was published in 1957. Detailing her childhood in vaudeville and her relationship with her mother. It was an immediate bestseller.

Broadway producers also noticed it and decided it would make a great musical, and so was born what many consider the best Broadway musical of all time: "Gypsy". With book by Arthur Laurents , music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim , it premiered in 1959 and was an immediate smash. However, though Gypsy was an important character, of course, it did not focus on her alone, but rather on the hard-boiled, driven, single-minded, even monstrous stage mother that was Mama Rose. This time it was Rose who was the star, which, as the musical implies, was perhaps what she always wanted. The musical has been frequently revived and been made into two films. The role of Mama Rose has been played by, among others, Ethel Merman , Angela Lansbury , Tyne Daly , Bette Midler and Betty Buckley . Gypsy Rose Lee was able to enjoy the musical's success in her last years.

She had appeared in three films in the 1950s, and made three more in the 1960s, including a cameo in, of all films, the family comedy The Trouble with Angels (1966), opposite Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell , who played Mama Rose in the first screen version of the play, Gypsy (1962). The real Gypsy even hosted two incarnations of her own talk show. She died of cancer in 1970. Even if her film career wasn't spectacular, she was immortalized on the stage of both burlesque and Broadway. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tommy Peter Spouse (3) Older sister of June Havoc . Gypsy Rose started dancing and stripping at burlesque houses at the age of 15 with the assistance of fellow dancer "Tessie The Tassel Twirler." She retired from burlesque 8 years later to appear in films but documented her rise to fame and adventurous relationship with her mother in the autobiographical book, "Gypsy." Mother of Erik Lee Preminger .

In the 1940s, Gypsy Rose Lee was in love with the theatrical impresario Michael Todd , who produced two Broadway shows starring Lee ("Star and Garter" and "The Naked Genius"). She married Alexander Kirkland in 1942 in an attempt to make the already-married Todd jealous. They divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she had a brief fling with Otto Preminger . The fruit of their affair was a boy named Erik Lee, who has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Lee Preminger . At one of her weddings, Gypsy had a chimpanzee as a ring bearer. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 1969, she called it "a present from mother". She had many pets, including cats, turtles, guinea pigs, and Chinese crested dogs. Although she was a "stripper," she never actually got undressed. The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró , Pablo Picasso , Marc Chagall , Max Ernst , and Dorothea Tanning , all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves.

Like her mother, Lee was married three times. Her mother Rose died from colon cancer in 1954. Parents: John Hovick and Rose Thompson Hovick. Sister-in-law of William Spier . Portrayed by Natalie Wood in Gypsy (1962) and even appeared on set to give Wood advice on how to perform the stripper dance routines. In real life Wood was actually eight inches shorter than the real Gypsy Rose Lee. Her father was of Norwegian descent. Her mother was of British Isles and German ancestry. After she was diagnosed with lung cancer she reconciled with her sister June. Personal Quotes (3) Gypsy Rose Lee – Exequy's Blog Bio , History , Women Gypsy Rose Lee (also known as Rose Louise Hovick and Louise Hovick) (February 9, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American actress, burlesque entertainer, and writer, whose 1957 memoir, which included a scathing portrait of her domineering mother, was made into the stage musical and film, Gypsy.

She was a supporter of the Popular front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of children during the conflict which preceded World War II. In 1969, she performed for American troops in Vietnam. Despite her own difficult childhood, and her relationship with her mother, her spirit matured into a generous, humane, and warm-hearted woman. She did what she had to do to climb up the show-business ladder, and is credited in her early days with making the strip-tease into a sophisticated act. Her talent was not only interpreting others’ work; she wrote successful novels and plays as well as her famous autobiography. Early life Born as Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington in 1911, Gypsy was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, was fifteen years old when she married John Hovick who, according to Rose’s birth certificate, was an ad salesman with a local newspaper. A second daughter, Ellen Hovick (better known as actress June Havoc), was born several years later. Rose Hovick divorced her husband leaving the family financially distressed.

The girls earned the family’s income by appearing in vaudeville where June Hovick’s talent shone while her older sister remained in the background. At the age of 16, June married a boy in the act named Bobby Reed, whom Mother Rose had arrested and then attempted to murder at the police station. She aimed a pistol at Reed and pulled the trigger, but the safety was on. Rose Hovick was arrested and Reed was released. June Hovick left the act in 1930 and went on to a brief career in marathon dancing and then acting. Career success Her singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without her sister June. It became apparent that Louise Hovick could earn money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status. Her innovations were an almost casual strip style, compared to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers. Hovick emphasized the “tease” in “striptease” and she brought her sharp sense of humor into her act as well.

She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her strip style It was at this time that Hovick changed her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee and became one of the biggest stars of Minsky’s Burlesque. She was frequently arrested in raids against the Minsky brothers’ shows. She danced for Minsky for four years and then made her way headline as a Ziegfeld Girl in shows like Hot Cha. Gypsy Rose Lee made her was to Hollywood in 1935. She was billed as “Louise Hovick” by 20th Century Fox which upset Lee as she was known nationwide as Gypsy Rose Lee. To legitimize herself, she married Arnold Bob Mizzy on August 25, 1937 at the studio’s insistence. Lee’s early film work was unacceptable so she decided to go back to New York City where she knew she could find work and regain her fame. She invested in business with theater impresario Mike Todd and went on to star in Streets of Paris, and the Theater Cafe, Gay New Orleans and Star and Garter. Trying to describe what Lee was, namely a “high-class” stripper, H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast.

Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number Zip! from Rodgers and Hart’s Broadway musical Pal Joey; a play in which her sister June Hovick appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen. In 1941, Lee authored a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders which was made into the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by Craig Rice there are also those who suggest that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee’s own correspondence to prove she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her friend and mentor, the editor George Davis. Lee’s second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942. Relationships In 1942, although Lee was romantically involved, and in love, with Michael Todd, in an attempt to make him jealous, Gypsy Lee married William Alexander Kirkland in 1942. They divorced in 1944.

On the day of her divorce, her only son, Erik, was born. His birth was extremely controversial since Erik was not Kirkland’s son, but the son of Otto Preminger. Lee was married for a third time in 1948, to Julio de Diego, but they eventually divorced. Lee and her sister June, who became a successful Hollywood actress, continued to get demands for money from their mother, Rose Hovick. She had opened a boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment building on West End Avenue in New York City. This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for her mother by Gypsy Rose Lee. Rose Hovick shot and killed one of her guests. According to Lee’s son Erik Preminger, Hovick killed the man because the boarder had made a pass at Lee while she was at the boardinghouse. However, this incident was explained away as a suicide. Rose Hovick died from colon cancer in 1954. Later years With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about Rose Hovick without risking a lawsuit.

Lee’s memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957, and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. June did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was persuaded not to oppose it for her sister’s sake. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged. June Hovick, in turn, wrote Early Havoc and More Havoc, relating her version of the story of growing up with Rose Hovick. Lee went on to host a San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. A lifelong cigarette smoker, she was diagnosed, in 1969, with metastatic lung cancer, which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. “This is my present, you know,” she reportedly told June, referring to her affliction, “My present from Mother.” The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures painted by Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves.

Like Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular front movement in the Spanish Civil War, and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of children during the conflict which preceded World War II. Lee died in Los Angeles, at either 56 or 59 years old, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Legacy Even though Lee started her career with limited talent, she will always be remembered as the woman who invented the strip tease. She was one of the only strippers to leave an estate worth over a million dollars and set attendance records all over the world. She never lost sight of her talents and continued to challenge her abilities, becoming and actress, author, mother, talk show host. Her life was not an easy to look at picture book, or fairy-tale story of purity and good conduct. Nor was her life particularly easy, especially in terms of the stability or instability of her relationships. Yet she produced an enduring legacy of professional work, represented by books as well as by films. In her acting and writing, Gypsy Rose Lee plumbed the depth of human experience, exploring the struggle between good and evil.

In can be said that she left the world a better place for having lived and for having spent her life as an actor, writer, and interpreter of the human spirit. Like Pablo Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular front movement in the Spanish Civil War and used her persona to raise money for charities aimed at alleviating the suffering of children during the conflict which preceded World War II. Rose Thompson Hovick (Itinerant) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Rose Thompson Hovick Rose Thompson Hovick Female Rose Elizabeth Thompson Hovick was the mother of two famous performing daughters: burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc. related links Lyric Stage Presents Gypsy, Closes 9/18 Broadway World Google News - Sep 18, 2011 'Lyric Stage opens its 19th season with GYPSY the story of Rose Hovick, the mother of all stage mothers, and her relentless pursuit of stardom for her two daughters.

This production of GYPSY will be the first since the 1959 original Broadway production' Under The Lights: A Theater Season For All Tastes Delaware County Daily Times Google News - Sep 17, 2011 'December: Energetic Tovah Feldshuh, an earth mother of sorts, plays musical theater&#39;s most maternal mom, Rose Hovick, in âGypsyâ at the Bristol Riverside Theatre while Tony Braithwaite brings his Christmas memory, âLaughing All the Wayâ to Act II in' Lips Together, Legs Apart Dallas Voice Google News - Sep 15, 2011 'Hard-driving stage mom Rose Hovick (Sue Mathys) pushes her daughters into show business as kids: One will eventually become B-movie actress June Havoc; one the legendary ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee.

But until then, they were just Shirley Temple wannabes' Books Of The Times; A Life Built On Illusion, More Tease Than Strip NYTimes - Dec 20, 2010 'AMERICAN ROSE A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee By Karen Abbott Illustrated. 422 pages. Random House. $26. On the theory that the biographer of a stripper needs a tease, Karen Abbott opens \'\'American Rose\'\' with Gypsy Rose Lee on the verge of something big. It\'s 1940, and Ms. Lee, known in this book more comfortably as Gypsy,' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Rose Thompson Hovick. CHILDHOOD 1890 Birth Born in 1890. TWENTIES 1911 21 Years Old Rose Thompson married her first husband, Jack Hovick, when she was a teenager.

She gave birth to Rose Louise Hovick in 1911 in Seattle, Washington and her second daughter, Ellen June Hovick, in Vancouver, British Columbia one or two years later, although she reportedly had numerous birth certificates for both girls which listed them as being several years younger than they actually were and as a result, they were never entirely sure of their own ages. … Read More Later in their careers, the two daughters would adopt their more famous stage names, Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc. Rose Thompson Hovick's drive to create a performing career for her daughters eventually led to the end of her marriage to Jack Hovick, who disagreed with her intentions for the girls. In later life, Rose had opened a lesbian boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City. This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for Mother Rose by Gypsy Lee. Rose shot and killed one of her guests (according to Erik Preminger, Gypsy's son by Otto Preminger, she killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy) at the boardinghouse.

This incident was explained as a suicide.<br /><br /> Rose Hovick became known as the ultimate stage mother by way of the classic musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable, based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee. Originally staged in 1959, Gypsy - with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents - has since been performed in countless venues on stage and in film. It portrays Rose Hovick as a domineering, take-no-prisoners stage mother who will do anything to further the success of her daughters in show business. The character is often referred to as "Mama Rose" (or "Momma Rose"), a sobriquet that does not appear in the script and adamantly dismissed by its book writer Arthur Laurents. Read Less LATE ADULTHOOD 1000+ images about Gypsy Rose Lee | Burlesque on Pinterest | Gypsy rose lee, Burlesque and Gypsy rose Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Gypsy Rose Lee | Burlesque

Question: What was the stage name of American ecdysiast Rose Louise Hovick (1911- 1970)?
Answer: Gypsy Rose Lee